“I dreamed of becoming a teacher”: Soviet autobiographies of Tatar women

The article presents fragments of autobiographies and memoirs of the 1960s, written by activists of the Tatar women's movement of the revolutionary years. Koyash Valitova (born in 1898), Zukhra Baimbetova (1899), Bylbyl Ilyasova (1898), Bibikhatyma Alaberdina (1901), Zeinab Bashirova (1903) worked in schools or were planning to become teachers before the revolution of 1917; during Soviet times, these women were involved in the propaganda and political work. An analysis of fragments of ego-documents showed that Soviet autobiographies of Tatar women have an element of “fight”, clashes with various forces (in the family, society). Intra-family conflicts were a characteristic feature of the ego-documents of Tatar female teachers. Moreover, Soviet representations kept silent about some features of pre-revolutionary Tatar everyday life and emphasized the cultural backwardness of Muslims. A comprehensive analysis allowed us to highlight individual details of pre-revolutionary life and refute the established stereotypes. The author concludes that the use of these documents in scientific research is possible only as a supplement to less biased sources of other types.